Odie
Odie in his "leaping" position
Portrayed by	Gregg Berger (providing his barks and other dog sound effects in animated appearances and Garfield Gets Real and other Garfield CGI movies) Unnamed real dog(s) in the live-action films Unknown stage actor (In "Garfield Live")
First appearance	Garfield comic strip (August 8, 1978)
Created by	Jim Davis
Profile
Species	Beagle (Dachshund in the live-action films)
Gender	Male
Relationships

Odie is a fictional character in the Jim Davis comic strip Garfield. He has also appeared in Garfield and Friends, two live-action feature films, and 3 CGI films.

He is a kind but unintelligent yellow-furred, brown-eared beagle. In the live-action films based on the Garfield franchise, he is played by a dachshund. In the comic of August 26, 2007, Garfield describes Odie's species as "purebred clown" after trying to find out what kind of dog Odie is with the help of a book. ^[1]

Odie usually has a large tongue and slobbers in his appearances. Recently, as of 2000, he is seen walking on two feet, instead of all fours, just like Garfield, though this was demonstrated in earlier strips.

In the television series, Odie's appearance is usually announced by the sound of the cavalry's bugling.

He is Garfield's best friend.

History

Odie was based on a car dealership commercial written by Jim Davis, which featured Odie the Village Idiot. Davis liked the name Odie and decided to use it again ^[2]. When Garfield was first submitted, Davis called Odie "Spot". He then visited cartoonist Mort Walker to show him his strips, and Walker told Davis "I had a dog named Spot". When Davis asked "Really?", Walker replied "Yes, in Boner's Ark, one of my comic strips". Davis said "Oops!" and changed Odie's name. Odie first appeared in the strip on August 8, 1978; the date is considered his birthday. There has been only one comic strip that celebrates Odie's birthday, in 1995^[3]. He was originally a pet to Jon Arbuckle's roommate Lyman, but Lyman disappeared from the series after about five years (with the exception of a one-panel cameo appearance in the strip for Garfield's 10th birthday). Odie eventually becomes a pet to Jon. There are some strips, however, which state that Odie was originally owned by Jon.

In the motion picture, Odie was adopted by Jon at a veterinarian center.

Speaking

Odie is the only animal character in the Garfield series without a recurring voice bubble, as he is portrayed as a "normal" house dog. However, he was shown thinking "I'm hungry" in an early strip. ^[4] He also has said "Hi to the people, dummy" and sang "Lady of Spain, I adore you" while Garfield was using him as a ventriloquist's dummy. ^[5][6] He also said "I don't know, I'm kinda scared," as a "mistake" in the cartoon episode Mistakes Will Happen, and said to Garfield, "No, you're beautiful" in the episode DJ Jon. More recently, he was seen actually speaking in one of Garfield's dream sequences. ^[7] As mentioned before, he sometimes thinks like Garfield. ^[8] On the cartoon, he speaks minor words such as "Ta-da!", "Huh?", or, more commonly, panting "Yeah, yeah, yeah!" He has said more intelligible sentences, such as "No horsey?" on the episode Dessert in the Desert, and on the first episode he even says "Right!" while agreeing with Jon. When he talks on the show, he speaks by actually moving his mouth, although other dogs have also been shown to do so. Odie speaks in a similar manner in Garfield Gets Real and its sequels, frequently saying "My bone!" In the Reading Ring game on the Professor Garfield site, if one manages to get the June 21, 2001 strip strip while facing Dr. Stripp, having the third panel will let the player hear Odie say "Uh-huh!" after Garfield's dialogue. ^[9]

Odie's first appearance.

In the CGI Series, The Garfield Show, Odie is usually heard barking, but occasionally audible words are spoken. These usually consist of "uh-huh" (agreement), "uh-uh" (disagreement) and mm-mm (query), although "I don't know" is clearly heard in one episode. On episode Freaky Monday, Odie was seen speaking more frequently and fluently (notice the baritone voice) as a result of an alien ray that drastically enhanced his intelligence. "What's with the doggy breath?" he once quote. this dog is a cute

Garfield and odie

Odie is, to Garfield, a complete slobbering idiot, but there may be more under the idiotic surface. One strip^[10] shows him enjoying classical music on TV with the novel, War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy, nearby after Jon and Garfield leave the house. (According to Davis' comments in the 20th-anniversary book, "I couldn't resist.") Another has him lock the others out of the car on a camping trip, where he enjoys the sandwiches, radio, and chips, while the others just get wet. In others he has been seen setting decoys, writing poetry, and while playing as superheros with Garfield, finding a complete outfit to one-up Garfield's cape.^[11] One theory is that there are two Odies, a smart one and the more common idiot. It may be that Odie is actually smarter than he appears, and merely uses the idiotic front as a means to gain an advantage over Garfield. In two strips, Garfield went to see what was at the end of Odie's tongue, and it turned out to be a second Odie (which Garfield dismissed as an effect of a bad can of tuna from the previous night).^[12] Odie has managed to take revenge on Garfield occasionally, and Garfield sometimes cannot avoid noticing it. Garfield acknowledges this by saying "He's not as dumb as he looks, but then again who could be?" In the first episode of The Garfield Show an alien species that resemble lasagne scan Odie with a ray that indicates brain power - the result was zero.

Garfield on numerous occasions actually does care a great deal for Odie, most notably in the first Garfield special Here Comes Garfield, in which Odie is briefly captured by the dogcatcher and Garfield realizes through flashbacks of him and Odie playing together and how sad his life would be without him (in these series of flashbacks by Garfield, the song "So Long Old Friend" is played in the background). In one strip, Garfield states that Odie is made of rubber.^[13] Other times Garfield tries to put the blame on Odie for some of the mishaps he has done.

Odie all too often gets kicked off the table by Garfield; once Odie tried to push Garfield off the table, but Garfield was too heavy^[14]. In addition to getting kicked off the table, Odie is often the victim of Garfield's pranks. Curiously, Garfield has taken offense to others treating Odie in this manner. In one strip, he punches out another cat who beats up on Odie, insisting "Nobody beats up on Odie but me!"^[15] Similarly, in Garfield: The Movie after seeing Happy Chapman use a shock collar on Odie, he says, "Hey, nobody gets to mistreat my dog like that except me!"

Odie does manage to get a little revenge on Garfield. Once, Jon accuses Garfield of clearing out his closet except for the T-shirt saying "I love cats." While Garfield professes his innocence, he is hurled out of the house. Comically Odie steps out to laugh at Garfield, wearing a plaid shirt, indicating he framed Garfield.^[16] In one strip, while Garfield confesses how good friend Odie was as Odie never minds Garfield playing tricks on him, Odie slyly pastes a note on Garfield's back that reads "KICK ME".^[17] Once, he managed to give Garfield a taste of his own medicine in a strip where Garfield tried to have fun with an Odie mask. Odie wasn't at the edge of the table, and while Garfield wondered where Odie was, he showed up (wearing a Garfield mask) and kicked the tabby off the table.^[18] Odie would also commonly do things to Garfield, but he gets his revenge. In one storyline, Garfield gets beat up by a bulldog after kicking him and has to wear a cast for nearly a week.^[19] The cast covers Garfield's entire body but his face. Odie torments Garfield throughout the duration of this time. In the final strip of the storyline, though, Garfield tells Jon that he'd like to keep his cast after being asked what he would like to do with it, and strikes Odie with it.^[20]

References

External links

• Garfield and Friends official site